Jadzia Dax
"Sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins." - Jadzia Dax, 2373 Jadzia Dax was a joined Trill and the eighth host of the Dax symbiont from 2367 to 2374. She was a Starfleet science officer who served on space station Deep Space 9 under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko. Early Life and Career She was born in 2341 on the Trill homeworld. Growing up, Jadzia was always a shy and quiet child. She lived with her mother, father and sister on Trill and was always very driven by her ambitions to one day be joined to a symbiont. She spent much of her early life focusing on achieving her goals. She was the only member of her family who would ever become joined to a symbiont. Prior to her joining, Jadzia attended Starfleet Academy and applied to the Trill Symbiosis Commission for joining after graduation. While at the Academy, she earned Premier Distinctions in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology. After working hard, Jadzia was initially rejected for joining and eliminated from the program by her field docent, Curzon Dax in 2364. She successfully re-applied that same year and became the only Trill in history to successfully complete the program after having been rejected. This experience would haunt her for years to come and is one reason why she never had positive feelings about returning to Trill. She never could understand why she was washed out of the program by Curzon. She was joined to Dax in 2367 after the death of its previous host, Curzon. After being approved for joining, she had heard of Curzon's deteriorating health and requested that she receive the Dax symbiont after Curzon's death. Later, during her zhian'tara, she learned that Curzon's reasons for rejecting her original application were personal, since he had actually fallen in love with her. After being joined to Dax, Jadzia's training and experiences made the adjustment to having seven different lifetimes of memories and experiences relatively easy. The once shy, hardworking and dedicated Jadzia became a lively, confident and outgoing person with a passion for life. Jadzia was very comfortable with who she was. She was later described by Garak as "vital, alive... she owned herself." After joining, Jadzia picked up on the habits of her previous hosts, such as clasping her hands behind her back, taking up Klingon martial arts, an interest in Klingon culture and playing Ferengi tongo, just to name a few. Even as an Ensign and Lieutenant JG in Starfleet, she had dealings with many prominent officers. She was acquainted with Captain Keogh, though the two did not get along. She was also friends with Captain Shelby, who even owed her a favor, which Jadzia eventually cashed in. Aboard Deep Space 9 In 2369, twenty-eight-year-old Lieutenant Jadzia Dax was assigned as science officer aboard the space station Deep Space 9, under the command of Benjamin Sisko, who had been a friend of Curzon. Shortly after her assignment to the station, Jadzia and Sisko discovered the Bajoran wormhole, opening a new era in Federation history. Later that year Jadzia stood trial for crimes that Curzon had allegedly committed during the Klaestron Civil War. Though she was ultimately cleared of the charges, Jadzia had been willing to accept a guilty verdict in order to protect Curzon and others. She became a real-life game piece in a game of Chula, a Wadi game that Quark was forced to play. An alien took her form and became very amorous with Julian Bashir. In 2370, the Dax symbiont was removed from Jadzia and kidnapped by an unjoined Trill, Verad, who believed he had been cheated of being joined. He was briefly joined with the Dax symbiont, becoming Verad Dax before he was apprehended and Dax was rejoined with Jadzia. After she was rejoined with the symbiont, Verad's memories – cold and afraid – stayed with her for the rest of her life. After landing on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Jadzia and Odo tried to solve a mystery. The people of the village were disappearing. They discovered that the people were holograms, created by Rurigan, whose village was wiped out by the Jem'Hadar. The hologenerator was malfunctioning, but they were able to fix it and bring the people back. Jadzia kept an oath made by Curzon with his Klingon brothers. His friends' sons had been killed by the Albino, a master criminal, against whom the four vowed vengeance. At first, they were reluctant to accept her into their group, but she successfully persuaded them. She participated in the attack that killed the Albino; however, two of the three Klingons were also killed. That same year, Jadzia took on the role that had caused her so much pain before, that of field docent for the Trill Symbiosis Commission. Her initiate, Arjin, boarded Deep Space 9 with a great deal of apprehension because of the legendary harshness of Dax as a field docent. Jadzia, however, was determined not to be the same kind of docent that Curzon had been and made every effort to convince Arjin of this. Jadzia was threatened with the removal of Dax a second time in 2371, when it was discovered that a previously undisclosed host, Joran Belar, had been psychotic. The Trill Symbiosis Commission had kept the memories of Joran blocked from both symbiont and host, but they began to resurface and threatened to cause Jadzia to reject Dax. Under threat of exposing their great secret – that one in two Trill were capable of joining, not the generally believed one in ten thousand – the Commission agreed to restore Joran's memories, which ultimately equalized the symbiosis and saved Jadzia's life. In 2371, she was transported back in time to the era of the Bell Riots, an event which caused social upheaval and awareness of the plight of the poor. While Sisko and Bashir were trapped in a Sanctuary District, she was able to contact the crew of the USS Defiant, who were able to return them to their own timeline, with only a few minor changes. At some point between stardates 48959 and 49011, Jadzia was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Jadzia became trapped with Bashir in a turbolift with limited air during an attack by the Jem'Hadar on the Defiant. She and Julian were rescued just as the air ran out. She helped Kor and Worf retrieve the Sword of Kahless, saving it from being taken by Toral, a usurper to the leadership of the Klingon High Council. She assisted Bashir in his attempts to cure the blight, a disease caused by a bioweapon with which the Jem'Hadar had infected a planet. Jadzia joined Worf on Martok's ship, the IKS Rotarran. The crew was lax and had no fighting spirit, due to the constant defeats by the Jem'Hadar. She helped instill Klingon pride and spirit in them, which contributed to them winning their first battle. She also helped Sisko capture Michael Eddington, a former Starfleet officer on Deep Space 9, who had joined the Maquis. Dominion War Jadzia became an important figure during the Dominion War. With the threat of invasion, Jadzia commanded the Defiant in a mission to mine the Bajoran wormhole. She was ordered to do this in order to prevent further Dominion reinforcements from coming through. Ultimately, this action was the catalyst that began the Dominion War. After Deep Space 9 was taken by the Cardassian/Dominion fleet, Jadzia piloted the Defiant to safety. Soon after, she became involved in several battles with the Dominion aboard the Defiant. During a mission to destroy a ketracel-white facility in Cardassian space, the Dax symbiont was badly injured from the explosion. Jadzia, along with the rest of her crew, was rescued soon after by the Rotarran. In early 2374, Jadzia was given command of the Defiant by Admiral Ross, after he promoted Captain Sisko to be his adjutant. When it was uncovered that a major reason for the Dominion's dominance was a sensor array monitoring all activity across five sectors, Jadzia commanded a successful mission to destroy it. She was aboard the Defiant for Operation Return and was present for Sisko's near-suicide mission into the wormhole to stop Dominion reinforcements from coming through. Fortunately, the Prophets intervened, saving Dax and the rest of the crew of the Defiant. When the Federation and allied forces went on the offensive at the First Battle of Chin'toka, she stayed behind and took command of Deep Space 9. Sadly, though, while her crewmates were fighting the battle, Gul Dukat (controlled by a Pah-wraith) struck her down. She was in a Bajoran temple when Dukat arrived and unleashed the Pah-wraith into a sacred Orb in order to imprison the Prophets in the wormhole; when she tried to stop him, he killed her. Her symbiont was saved and transferred to another Trill, Ezri Tigan, who became Ezri Dax. Category:Starfleet Characters Category:Trill Characters Category:Deceased Characters